The W3C Patent Policy aims to solve a specific problem -- to reduce the threat of blocking patents on key components of Web infrastructure.

"W3C Members who joined in building the Web in its first decade made the business decision that they, and the entire world, would benefit most by contributing to standards that could be implemented ubiquitously, without royalty payments, explained Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "By adopting this Patent Policy, W3C's Members will continue to be able to concentrate on the business of producing the best possible technical standards for the Web with the best chance for widespread adoption. W3C now sets the benchmark for the pragmatic way to successfully develop royalty-free Web Standards in the current patent environment."

The Policy lends support to the basic intellectual property business model that has driven innovation on the Web from its inception. Companies, researchers and independent developers make contributions of design insights, valuable engineering resources, and hard work in order to develop technical interoperability standards upon which a worldwide information infrastructure can be built.

The W3C royalty-free license requirements are consistent with generally recognized Open Source licensing terms. This royalty-free definition provides reasonable assurance that the Recommendations themselves are available to all users and implementors of the Recommendation. >from *World Wide Web Consortium Approves Patent Policy*. May 21, 2003